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Critics slam Trump after he declines to call out Charlottesville white supremacists, some of whom are his supporters

Trump on Saturday condemned the bloody protests in Charlottesville, Va., in what critics in both parties saw as muted, equivocal terms.

By Glenn ThrushMaggie HabermanThe New York Times

Sun., Aug. 13, 2017

BRIDGEWATER, N.J.—U.S. President Donald Trump is rarely reluctant to express his opinion, but he is often seized by caution when addressing the violence and vitriol of white supremacists, neo-Nazis and far-right activists, some of whom are his supporters.

After days of genially bombastic interactions with the news media on North Korea and the shortcomings of congressional Republicans, Trump on Saturday condemned the bloody protests in Charlottesville, Va., in what critics in both parties saw as muted, equivocal terms.

During a brief and uncomfortable address to reporters at his golf resort in Bedminster, New Jersey, he called for an end to the violence. But he was the only national political figure to spread blame for the “hatred, bigotry and violence” that resulted in the death of one person to “many sides.”

For the most part, Republican leaders and other allies have kept quiet over several months about Trump’s outbursts and angry Twitter posts. But recently they have stopped averting their gazes and on Saturday a handful criticized his reaction to Charlottesville as insufficient.

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“Mr. President — we must call evil by its name,” tweeted Sen. Cory Gardner who oversees the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the campaign arm of the Senate Republicans.

During a brief and uncomfortable address to reporters at his golf resort in Bedminster, New Jersey, Donald Trump called for an end to the violence in Charlottesville. But he was the only national political figure to spread blame for the “hatred, bigotry and violence” that resulted in the death of one person to “many sides.”
(Pablo Martinez Monsivais / AP)

“These were white supremacists and this was domestic terrorism,” he added, a description several of his colleagues used.

Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor and the father of the White House press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, did not dispute Trump’s comments directly, but he called the behaviour of white nationalists in Charlottesville “evil.”

Democrats have suggested that Trump is simply unwilling to alienate the segment of his white electoral base that embraces bigotry. The president has forcefully rejected any suggestion he harbours any racial or ethnic animosities, and points to his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, an observant Jew, and his daughter Ivanka, who converted to the faith, as proof of his inclusiveness.

In one Twitter post Saturday, Trump nodded to that inclusiveness.

“We must remember this truth: No matter our colour, creed, religion or political party, we are ALL AMERICANS FIRST,” the president wrote, a statement that had echoes of his campaign slogan, America First.

But like several other statements Trump made Saturday, the tweet made no mention that the violence in Charlottesville was initiated by white supremacists brandishing anti-Semitic placards, Confederate battle flags, torches and a few Trump campaign signs.

Trump, the product of a well-to-do, predominantly white Queens enclave who in 1989 paid for a full-page ad in The New York Times calling for the death penalty for five black teenagers convicted but later exonerated of raping a white woman in Central Park, flirted with racial controversy during the 2016 campaign. He repeatedly expressed outrage that anyone could suggest he was prejudiced.

People receive first-aid after a car ran into a crowd of protesters in Charlottesville, VA on Saturday. A picturesque Virginia city braced Saturday for a flood of white nationalist demonstrators as well as counter-protesters, declaring a local emergency as law enforcement attempted to quell early violent clashes. (PAUL J. RICHARDS/AFP/GETTY IMAGES)

When he retweeted white supremacists’ accounts, he brushed aside questions about them. When he was asked about the support he had been given by David Duke, a former Ku Klux Klan leader, he chafed, insisting he didn’t know Duke.

Finally, at a news conference in South Carolina, Trump said “I disavow” when pressed on Duke. He later described Duke as a “bad person.”

When his social media director, Dan Scavino, posted an image on Trump’s Twitter feed with a Star of David near Hillary Clinton’s head, with money raining down, Trump rejected widespread criticism of the image as anti-Semitic. And after years of questioning President Barack Obama’s citizenship, he blamed others for raising the issue in the first place.

In an interview that aired in September, Trump said “I am the least racist person that you have ever met,” a statement he repeated at a White House news conference in February.

In Bedminster on Saturday, Trump said he and his team were “closely following the terrible events unfolding in Charlottesville,” then tried to portray the violence there as a chronic, bipartisan plague. “It’s been going on for a long time in our country,” he said. “It’s not Donald Trump. It’s not Barack Obama.”

The Charlottesville City Council voted to remove the statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee and change the name of the space from Lee Park to Emancipation Park, sparking protests from white nationalists, neo-Nazis, the Ku Klux Klan and members of the 'alt-right.' (Chip Somodevilla/GETTY IMAGES)

Trump did not single out the marchers, who included the white supremacist Richard Spencer and Duke, for their ideology.

While Democrats and some Republicans faulted Trump for being too vague, Duke was among the few Trump critics who thought the president had gone too far.

“I would recommend you take a good look in the mirror & remember it was White Americans who put you in the presidency, not radical leftists,” he wrote on Twitter, shortly after the president spoke.

The president remained silent on the violence for most of the morning even as House Speaker Paul D. Ryan, Trump’s wife, Melania, and dozens of other public figures condemned the march.

Melania Trump, using her official Twitter account, wrote, “Our country encourages freedom of speech, but let’s communicate w/o hate in our hearts. No good comes from violence. #Charlottesville.”

Ryan was even more explicit. “The views fuelling the spectacle in Charlottesville are repugnant. Let it only serve to unite Americans against this kind of vile bigotry,” he wrote on Twitter at noon, around the time that Gov. Terry McAuliffe of Virginia declared a state of emergency in the city.

“As @POTUS Trump said, “We have to come together as Americans with love for our nation... & true affection for each other.” #Charlottesville” — Vice-President Mike Pence on Twitter.

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